According to trade press sources, “Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2023 offered customers, key stakeholders and partners the most successful event in its 24-year history.” Photo: Breaking Defense.
When I read UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ speech on the imperative to stop the growth and development of nuclear weapons (and war budgets in general), I felt compelled to comment on this hot topic.
Military spending is at an all-time high. From laser-guided drones to canine armor, there’s no shortage of weapons, tech, or other types of warrior hardware. During these 12 months, 359 arms and defense exhibitions are planned, 11 of which are considered major exhibitions and whose contract and related sales exceed 1 billion US dollars.
To understand this industry, there is nothing more illustrative than visiting the massive DSEI (Defence and Security Equipment International) “Supermarket of Death” in London.
DSEI, Europe’s largest arms fair, takes place every two years at the Excel Convention Center in the east of the British capital. It’s a sprawling modern warfare supermarket where representatives of the world’s armed forces gather to buy the latest AI-guided missiles and tanks, inspect warships moored in the Royal Docks and queue in the cockpits of fighter jets.
Underwater drones on the ground, missile-carrying drones hanging from the ceiling. “This year seems to be a lot busier than usual,” said a bomb seller, standing next to a gleaming shelf of cone-shaped warheads polished like trophies in a display case. “It seems like the war has returned in a big way. “People want to stock up.” Based on their clothing, many of the participants appear to come from the Arab world, Asia and Africa.
Unmanned underwater equipment. Could something like this have been used to sabotage Nord Stream II? DSEI photo
Britain’s most senior military officer, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, briefs a captive audience on the rising threat level, pointing out that the war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted the vulnerability of our cities to deadly missile and drone attacks. It does not recognize that this is actually a NATO war against Russia.
Now it is easy to “fly to a country and fly drones”. We must have integrated missile defense,” says the admiral.
The war in Ukraine has shattered tempers, raised real fears among attackers of retaliation for their attacks, and opened up purse strings for governments to spend on defense. Total global military spending reached an all-time high of $2.2 trillion in 2022, and Europe saw its largest annual increase in 30 years: the total exceeded in real terms that of the final year of the Cold War.
The exhibition in London covers an area the size of 14 football fields and includes areas dedicated to land, sea, aerospace and even space warfare. There are also sections on medical innovations and various future technologies, as well as a number of national pavilions.
In the Israel pavilion, a company promotes its “high-penetration wireless communications for robotics and drones” with videos of drones flying through bombed buildings like a swarm of mosquitoes. Brazil offers “ammunition, bombs, rockets and detonators” as well as a plate of free candy. Norway shows a sled with a 12.7 mm machine gun. Night vision goggles and AI-powered visors are available in abundance. Switzerland goes old school with its Victorinox blades.
Nearby, a mannequin with a thick covering of white fabric leaves, giving it the appearance of a yeti. It is a real invisibility cloak. “It protects soldiers from ultraviolet, thermal and infrared cameras,” says Indian company Entremonde Polyecoaters. “The fabric has a special coating so it blends into the surrounding terrain and makes the soldier invisible.”
Robot dogs can be seen carrying drones and other technologies (whose applications range from perimeter security to bomb disposal). Photo DSEI
As hosts, the British Armed Forces are most strongly represented and show the latest projects. On the military front, the new armored vehicles are being introduced from the troubled $6.7 billion Ajax program, an “advanced, fully digitalized ground vehicle system that delivers transformative change” made by General Dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It is the largest single order in more than two decades: 589 vehicles at a price of 12 million each. More than six years late, Ajax was described as a “complete disaster” by the former Royal Navy chief.
“You’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Major David Hughes cheerfully, presenting one of the new reconnaissance vehicles. “It gives us increased lethality, survivability, reliability, mobility and intelligence in all weather conditions.” On display are its 40 mm cannon with a range of more than 2.5 km, long-range thermal imaging sights and acoustic sensors that pick up weapon noise and can draw the target directly on the commander’s screen.
“With just the click of two buttons,” he explains, “they can pass that information to an unmanned drone or an Apache helicopter.” Pressing the button again brings the Apache pilot into play and destroys the target in a single pass. “This digitally networked system significantly increases our operational lethality.”
Behind it is a huge jet-powered drone that could soon be part of the digitally connected battlefield, carrying a payload of three laser-guided Brimstone missiles. It is the Hydra 400, which uses hybrid propulsion technology (rotors and jet engines) to carry 400 kg of bombs and was developed in response to the growing challenges of urban warfare. Compact and portable, assembly takes just six minutes, giving troops “an Apache helicopter in the trunk of their armored car,” according to a jubilant presenter.
Next door, smaller drones are attached to their mother ship, which they are supposed to transport over long distances and then release for precision attacks. “They all have cameras with artificial intelligence on board,” emphasizes Major Matthew McGarvey-Miles, head of a technology development program. “They can identify and automatically track targets without the need for an operator to constantly monitor them.”
These devices are still in the testing stages, but the UK military is moving quickly in an automated, connected and lethally digital direction.
“We are responding to the operational environment we see in Ukraine,” explains Army Chief Patrick Sanders, emphasizing that these unmanned killing machines need skilled people. “When the electromagnetic spectrum is challenged, automation fails and pilot skills prevail. We need fighters – whether cyber specialists, drone pilots or infantry soldiers – who are stronger, faster and smarter.”
Unmanned weapons affect the design of their controls. A small stand gleaming with hundreds of tiny switches, buttons and joysticks looks like a complex gaming console.
“We make fully sealed pressure switches, toggle switches, knock switches, locking lever switches and safety critical switches,” says Steve Blackwell of Apem Components. “We are the largest manufacturer of switches in Europe. But the most important thing now is the stick controllers. Many people in the military now come from the Xbox generation and are used to thumbs. Gone are the days of large pneumatic or hydraulic controls.”
The presenter uses a hand controller: a simple device for something that could unleash hellfire on a pixelated target hundreds of miles away. Flexible thumbs will determine the war of the future. Tomorrow’s battles will be fought from the chair (also on display) with the help of AI.
The world of unmanned warfare has already moved beyond drones. Acoustic minesweepers, intelligent submarines, tanks and other remotely controlled armed vehicles will be exhibited at the exhibition.
On the huge BAE Systems stand is a device that looks like an angry insect. DSEI photo.
It’s called STRIX and is described as a “hybrid, tandem-wing, multi-domain, multi-role unmanned aerial system” capable of vertical take-off and seamless transition to level flight. The German defense giant Rheinmetall presents a fleet of off-road monsters with huge wheels that are larger than their bodies: The Mission Master races over ice and snow at -30 ° C using AI-controlled navigation.
Unmanned off-road vehicle “ideal for use in the steppe,” says the advertiser. DSEI photo
Beyond its tremendous killing capacity, this weapons explosion will result in the misuse of more than $2.2 trillion in 2023 alone. Out of 213 countries in the world, only seven countries (USA, China, Japan, Germany, India, Great Britain and France) have a nominal GDP exceeding this amount. The production of these advanced killer systems also consumes the largest amount of strategic minerals, including the ores necessary for the transition to a “green economy” and alleviating hunger, poverty and climate change on our planet.
There are numerous opponents outside the showrooms. An articulate protester from an organization called the Peace Pledge Union tells visitors: “Please remember that many of the countries you do business with are on the UK government’s list of human rights priorities.”
Emily Apple of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade is more direct. “DSEI is a market of death,” he denounces. “The agreements reached here will cause misery around the world, cause global instability and destroy people’s lives.” The arms dealers only care about maintaining the conflict, because conflict increases the profits of their shareholders. “It’s time to end this arms fair for good.” Many of the demonstrators remember what these weapons are doing to the people of Syria, Palestine and Yemen.
Meanwhile, bottles of champagne and all sorts of sandwiches and appetizers appear inside the fair for the customers of the “Supermarket of Death”.
It is necessary to end at all costs these ostentatious displays of the achieved ability to kill and the question of how to appropriate the planet’s resources so that 1% of the world’s population controls the majority of humanity’s income. Necessary, including the extermination of the human race.
Constant pickets protest against DSEI. Photo by the author.
Almost nine decades ago, the Falangist general José Millán Astray called in none other than the University of Salamanca, founded more than eight centuries ago by Alfonso IX. by León: “Death to intelligence!” and “Long live death!” The then rector of the Primate University of Spain, Don Miguel de Unamuno, replied: “If we say ‘Long live death!’ say, we shout ‘Death to life!'” Whether this fact is true or apocryphal is irrelevant; However, it reveals the worldview of fascism against humanity, the dichotomy of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and the tyrant Juan Manuel de Rosas about civilization or barbarism.
From Elon Musk to Rupert Murdoch, a small number of billionaire media owners have powerful control over much of the information reaching the public about what is happening in the world. They don’t care about the truth about what is happening in reality, all that matters is what is convenient for capital and imperialism. Few (or not enough) today know about this synonymy of the great Unamuno or the dilemma of DF Sarmiento.
Let’s try to avoid the trap that many sometimes good, always faint-hearted people fall into, namely the desire to please everyone and to present false equivalences in the name of an imaginary “neutrality” and/or “centrism”.
We know that there is a right and a wrong position in the fight against racism and for reproductive justice, we should not be afraid to name who is responsible for the climate crisis and many other misfortunes. It is important that we repeat a thousand times that the one who is endangering the world and seeking greater benefits is the world military-industrial complex led by the United States, and that this is called fascism.
We must cut off the head of this hydra without allowing it to multiply, put an end to the insatiable and monstrous arms race, and allocate resources to humanity’s current existential needs.